To become a health visitor, you first need to be a qualified Registered Nurse or Midwife and hold current registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), then undertake a postgraduate degree to qualify as a Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (SCPHN)-Health Visitor.
Applicants are expected to be:
- Proactively interested in public health, prevention and early intervention
- Adaptable and influential
- Respectful of different values and take a holistic approach to care
- Supportive and have an adaptive communication style
- Insightful when communicating
- Able to engage others and build partnerships
- Able to demonstrate professionalism
- Able to study and perform at postgraduate(level 7) level - capable of:
- Critical thinking and analysis
- Independent study
- Academic writing at Master's level
- Applying evidence to practice.
Follow the links below for more information on preparation to become a health visitor, careers and making an application. To help you further, we also share a list of frequently asked questions.
Preparation to become a health visitor
Here, we provide some useful web links and reading suggestions to familiarise yourself with policy affecting health visiting.
Careers in health visiting
The iHV has produced a Career Pipeline towards health visitor qualification and Career Pathway for Health Visiting which includes the different job roles in health visiting teams.
Making an application
After you have reviewed the role of the health visitor and considered your personal attributes that fit with this role, start planning your application.